Agenda item

(a)  Councillor Salrah Merry (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education, Employment & Skills) will be in attendance and may wish to make a statement;

(b)  Councillor Ashley Lister (Assistant Cabinet Member for Youth Services), Nick Batchelar (Director Education and Lifelong Learning), and officers will present the report and be available to answer any questions Members may have;

(c)  Questions from Committee Members;

(d)  The way forward for this item will be considered at the end of the meeting.

The Chairperson welcomed Councillor Merry (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education, Employment & Skills), Councillor Ashley Lister (Assistant Cabinet Member for Youth Services), Nick Batchelar (Director Education and Lifelong Learning), Simon Morris (Achievement Leader, Youth Support) and James Healan (Team Leader Early Intervention & Prevention) to the meeting.

The Chairperson also welcomed Steve Khaireh from South Riverside Community Development Centre together with Jess Head and Ashanti Rule (members of Llanedeyrn Youth Activity Centre), Ffion Harding (Young Carers Provision) and Sam Evans and Ezra O’Connor (members of Grassroots) to the meeting.

The Chairperson invited the Assistant Cabinet Member to make a statement, in which he highlighted the good progress that has been made in the service, with the Cardiff Youth Service review near completion. He added that staff are completing health checks to ensure there is a good standard of delivery.

The Committee were shown a video on the work of the Youth Service. 

Simon Morris (Achievement Leader, Youth Support) and James Healan (Team Leader Early Intervention & Prevention) provided Members with a presentation which covered the following points:

·         What does the Youth Service delivery look like in Cardiff?

·         How well are we doing?

·         What are the challenges?

·         What are the opportunities?

As part of the presentation, Members heard reflections from young people on their experience of the service, in which they underlined how important it has been to them, including helping them to learn new skills and gain employment as well as support with mental health issues.

Steve Khaireh also provided information about the Youth Improvement Grant (YIG) work in South Riverside Community Development Centre, in which he explained that the service is part-funded through the YIG. The programme is running very successfully, covering 5 days of the week with over 100 members.

The Chairperson thanked everyone for attending, in particular the young people who took part and shared their experiences of the Youth Service.

AGREED – That the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Members conveying the observations of the Committee when discussing the Way Forward.